Swimming Lessons
by StarWarrior72
Summary: As a Tatooine farm boy, Luke doesn't have a clue how to swim. On a short break from the Alliance, a day on the beach might just change that. Oneshot, fluff.


Luke sat on the shore of a lake looking out at the little fleet of sailing boats on the placid water. There wasn't much to do, but he didn't mind, after the whirlwind that had been his life recently it was nice just to sit and watch for a little while. Leia and Han were splashing in the water and a part of Luke wished that he could join them, a larger part told him that he would only embarrass himself.

They had come to a small planet in an out of the way system on a mission to retrieve weapons that had been stored there for safekeeping, but the Alliance had forgotten how fast the _Falcon_ was, and they had arrived a couple of days early. How they could forget Luke didn't know, it wasn't like Han ever shut up about it. They had decided to make the most of it and spend some time doing things they couldn't do most of the time, like coming to the beach.

It was early afternoon and the sun beat shone down, the group had just finished eating and they sound of the waves where calming. After a few minutes of watching the boats Luke started to drift off.

Moments before he would have been properly asleep someone dumped a bucket of water on him. Opening his eyes in surprise he saw Han running back towards the water, laughing.

Luke was about to close his eyes again when he saw Leia motioning to him. _She wants me to come swimming too!_ Luke thought in dismay, _how can I avoid her finding out that I can't? I can't just ignore her, she knows that I saw. Darn you Han, this is all your fault._

Luke stood up and came to the edge of the water, "Yes, Leia?"

"Come swimming, Luke. You're going to get sunburned if you lie in the sun the whole time."

"I don't burn, I'll be OK."

He was heading back to his place on the bank when he heard Han say, "Don't bother your Highness, the kid can't swim. And he's scared to try."

The first Luke could stand with only a vow to destroy Han later, but the second was provocation enough to send him into the water after his friend. Han laughed harder and ran farther into the water until he had to swim to continue to move away from his friend. When Luke reached water deeper than he was tall he had to stop, glaring at Han.

"Come on then Luke. It's never too late to learn." Leia gently pulled Luke into more shallow water. "First you have to try to just float for a second, OK?"

Luke did as he was told, fighting terror.

"Was that so hard?" Leia asked encouragingly.

_Yes, yes it was. But I can't tell you that. I will kill Han for this, though._ Out loud he said, "No."

"Good. Now I want you to see if you can swim out and get Han." Leia gave Luke a gentle push into deeper water.

_This I can put my full enthusiasm into._ Luke ran farther into the water and started to try to splash out to his tormenter.

At first he thought that he was doing all right, but when the water reached his ears he re-evaluated that and changed his mind completely. He was starting to panic as his head began to slip under the water and he was very glad when Leia swam out to help him back to where he could touch.

As the lesson progressed both teacher and student failed to notice Han slinking out of the water and over to the bags that contained their things. As a result it was almost half an hour before Luke realized that his friend had been filming the whole endeavour.

He abandoned Leia's best teaching efforts to chase Han down for the camera. When Luke drew near Han dropped the camera so that he could run faster, but Luke forgot that his plan had simply been to seize the camera and delete the video.

As Luke continued to chase Han in circles around on the shore Leia picked up the camera and happily started a new video of the chase and the ensuing fight.

After a few minutes both of the boys had worn themselves out and they lay on the ground, panting. Leia saved the video and joined them in the shade of the tree they had collapsed under. The next day they would be rebels again, but today they were glad to have the chance to just be kids.


End file.
